A Washington woman claims Healthpoint committed whistleblower retaliation after she filed a False Claims Act lawsuit regarding fraudulent grants.

Plaintiff Sharon S. says she worked as a Resource Development Manager & Grant Writer for a year and a half at Healthpoint Centers of King County beginning in June 2016. Sharon claims that she wrote $125 million worth of grants during her employment with Healthpoint. However, that changed when she experienced whistleblower retaliation. 

For the first few months of her employment, everything was going well, she says. She allegedly received a satisfactory performance evaluation and completed her job duties.

However, in September 2016, she says issues began to arise. Management for Healthpoint allegedly asked Sharon to alter financial reports and defraud the U.S. government by receiving additional grant money.

Specifically, Sharon was allegedly asked by her immediate supervisor to alter the Uniform Data Set (UDS) reports which are submitted to the government. According to the whistleblower retaliation lawsuit, Shannon was supposed to increase the number of patients “so that Healthpoint would receive millions of dollars more than they were contractually entitled to receive”.

In September 2017, Sharon reportedly refused to alter grant documents which would defraud the U.S. government and informed CEO Thomas Trompeter that she had been asked to make illegal changes to the UDS reports.

“Trompeter told her that if she did not like it, she could go and find another job,” the Whistleblower retaliation lawsuit alleges.

Sharon allegedly met separately with the company’s human resource director and CEO. In both meetings, Sharon allegedly refused to make illegal changes to documents and also refused to resign. According to the suit, “she informed them that she would not alter any documents, period!”

Sharon says whistleblower retaliation allegedly followed soon after she refused to make illegal changes to the UDS reports. She says her office was moved from a normal room into a small storage closet and her hours were allegedly reduced.

She later learned that she was allegedly not making as much money as her coworkers. When she brought this up with her supervisor, the same supervisor who allegedly asked her to perform fraudulent alterations to document, she was allegedly told that she would be terminated if she didn’t keep quiet about the fraudulent behavior happening in the company. In the end, Sharon’s employment was terminated.

The whistleblower retaliation allegedly took a toll on Sharon’s health – which she claims led to her having a stroke.

Sharon is allegedly not the only Healthpoint employee to be retaliated against. While Sharon was working at Healthpoint, the company’s COO Debbie Wilkerson was allegedly fired after working with the company for 17 years. The whistleblower retaliation lawsuit claims that Wilkerson’s later application for unemployment compensation stated that she was fired after refusing to make illegal changes to documents.

Whistleblower retaliation is expressly prohibited under the False Claims Act, the federal law which allows employees to bring lawsuits on behalf of the federal government should fraud occur. Sharon claims that Healthpoint’s actions constitute whistleblower retaliation and seeks reinstatement, double back pay, special damages, court costs, and attorneys’ fees.

The Whistleblower Retaliation Lawsuit is Case No. 2:18-cv-01680 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.